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So, I'm guessing Mio winning is a surprise. Especially since Yuki still manages to win in the exhibition (though Hina is much weaker). Shana trouncing Taiga isn't really a surprise, but damn, it does mean they absolutely knocked Taiga out of necklace contention.

As for the necklace, it will be a two-way Stella fight. Yui is the only girl with a high SDO from Nova, but she's way weaker (even though she is AB). So from Mio vs Shana, I've no idea who will win.

As for final league placement, Azusa's lost knocks her down to 6th, but it's not so bad since Yui's win promotes her to 11th, meaning they will face each other in post-season 1 (if things are formatted that way...I'm assuming here). So she's practically guaranteed entering the all important round 2 of PS1. Shame for Yui, but it's not like Nadeko has much hope against Yuki anyway. Tomoyo makes it in ahead of Louise, but again, not looking to go much further.

In Nova, Inori finishes 9th, allowing her to take on 8th place Kobato. But there seems to be a significant drop from 8th to 9th that it probably doesn't matter. Three girls finished with 29 wins anyway, Kirino, Sena and Kobato, with Kirino finishing on top.

I don't really expect anyone to beat a top 8 in their respective group come PS1, but an influx of voters could change any established list.

Really? Saber is one of the strongest regular season girls in ISML 2012. And Fate/Zero and Type Moon are every bit the giant that SAO is.

The timing certainly helps SAO, but you make this sound like a curbstomp, which I very much doubt it will be.

Well, I've of course been wrong plenty of times before!

I just see Saber as a Tier 2 girl in terms of strength, from a Tier 2 show in terms of popularity. Where I see SAO as a Tier 1 show in terms of popularity. No idea where Asuna ranks personally, but she is the only real representative from SAO. Plus I'm pretty sure she has a lot of fans.

Another reason being the pairing itself. While Saber got stronger from Fate/Zero, she didn't really explode in power. And as great as Emiya was, he was always going to suffer in the end (being that the show was a prequel). In my eyes at least. And the pairing wasn't exactly sparkling in the show itself. The SAO pairing on the other hand, is a core romance.

And finally, while we don't know how the influx of voters for the necklace round will vote, they obviously don't care enough about Saber to vote in regular rounds. And these will be primarily K-On and Shana fans.

Of course I can be wrong, but I still expect Asuna to easily win. Shows I don't particularly like with girls I don't particularly like tend to do very well in ISML, so that flows too! haha.

Azusa's loss could've been the best sacrifice that can happen to K-ON! fans because it allows Mio to win the Topaz necklace.

About Asuna vs. Saber, don't forget that Saber has the advantage of being in an old anime and new anime, so Saber is probably both more widely recognize and fresh in people's minds. The reason I think it will be too close to call instead of an outright Saber win is because of the Kiritsugu pairing. Separately, they are good characters, but that partnership has never been very good.

It seems like Mikoto is winning this year as well. Tenshi only managed 59% on Kuroneko while Mikoto hit 61% on the far stronger Nakano Azusa. It's not like K-On is in a slump since Mio just smashed Yuki. Assuming none of the previously existing voters changed their voting habits, 80-90% of the new voters voted Mikoto over Azusa. The existing voters were expected to have 49-54% support for Mikoto. That's a pretty unbelievable difference. Mikoto had a Diamond 7 spike last year that turned out be to completely real so I think this is probably her real strength. A lot of Mikoto's supporters seem to only show up for the last match of the regular season and the playoffs. If Mikoto is to have any competition, it looks like it'll be Shana who had a similarly good performance against Taiga. However, it's not quite as impressive since Shana tends to overperform against other Kugimiya Rie characters. To close of their year, Tsumugi, Mikuru and Kyou had solid Topaz 7 performances. So did Suzutsuki Kanade and Makise Kurisu. Tachibana Kanade is going to have to work harder if she wants to take home the grand prize this year.

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A miracle that you believe in when you know it won't happen......... is hope.

It seems like Mikoto is winning this year as well. Tenshi only managed 59% on Kuroneko while Mikoto hit 61% on the far stronger Nakano Azusa. It's not like K-On is in a slump since Mio just smashed Yuki. Assuming none of the previously existing voters changed their voting habits, 80-90% of the new voters voted Mikoto over Azusa. The existing voters were expected to have 49-54% support for Mikoto. That's a pretty unbelievable difference. Mikoto had a Diamond 7 spike last year that turned out be to completely real so I think this is probably her real strength. A lot of Mikoto's supporters seem to only show up for the last match of the regular season and the playoffs. If Mikoto is to have any competition, it looks like it'll be Shana who had a similarly good performance against Taiga. However, it's not quite as impressive since Shana tends to overperform against other Kugimiya Rie characters. To close of their year, Tsumugi, Mikuru and Kyou had solid Topaz 7 performances. So did Suzutsuki Kanade and Makise Kurisu. Tachibana Kanade is going to have to work harder if she wants to take home the grand prize this year.

As much as I dislike the prospect of Misaka winning twice in a row, I still prefer it over Kanade , though if Shana could somehow win it would be awesome .

Pretty easy round. Shana is my favorite girl in the Necklace match itself, and she has a chance at winning it, so easy vote there. I went back and forth on Team SAO vs. Team Fate Zero but I eventually went with Team SAO since I think they make a better pair than Team Fate Zero (I still don't think this match will be a curbstomp for either side though).